Written Answers Friday 13 October 2006

Scottish Executive

Parliamentary Questions

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S2W-27347 in respect of the answers to questions S2W-25184 to 25186 lodged on 11 April 2006.

Nicol Stephen: PQ S2W-27347 was answered on 10 October 2006. All answers to written PQs are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search

NHS Finance

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons are for the NHS investing in shares; how much each NHS board has invested and in what companies; who incurs any losses that are accrued, and who monitors the receipts.

Mr Andy Kerr: NHS boards are not currently permitted to invest in companies without specific authority from Scottish Ministers. However Scottish Ministers agreed that NHS Grampian, NHS Greater Glasgow, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside should be allowed to own shares in TMRI Ltd., a Scottish limited company newly formed by those boards, four of Scotland’s Universities and Scottish Enterprise for the purpose of facilitating a medical research collaboration with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Each Board has subscribed a total of £1000 in return for being issued 1000 ordinary £1 shares in TMRI Ltd. The universities and Scottish Enterprise have also bought shares in TMRI Ltd and any potential losses in excess of the share capital would be borne by TMRI Ltd itself. Financial monitoring is the responsibility of the board of directors of that company, which includes a representative of each participating NHS board.

  NHS boards may also invest funds donated to them in shares but the Scottish Executive does not hold any information on these funds, as they are held on the boards’ behalf as separate endowment funds. Investment of NHS endowment funds is a matter for the individual fund managers and may also be governed by the terms of the endowment made.

Voluntary Organisations

Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the voluntary organisations to which it has allocated (a) direct grants, indicating the amount awarded and (b) indirect grants, indicating the amount offered in each case in 2006-07.

The Executive has supplied the following corrected answer:

Johann Lamont: I have today arranged for the release of a spreadsheet detailing direct and indirect grants to voluntary organisations in 2006-07. In 2006-07 the Executive will be providing £496 million directly and £160 million indirectly - £656 million in total - to the voluntary sector in Scotland. This is an increase of £133 million from last year, reflecting the Scottish Executive’s continued commitment to the sector.

  Copies of the spreadsheets are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib Numbers – Direct 40554 and – Indirect 40555) and also on the Scottish Executive website.